Calm before the storm

[jacsul]

Hey all,
I took these yesterday in the early dawn hours coming home from work.
You can see the weather front moving.
Your comments are always welcome.

Jack

[Davey]

I like the first one the most as seems more balanced from the point of view of composition. Only change I would make (and I'm no expert so don't take this as gospel) is slight crop take off a slice of the bottom bringing the boat to around the 33% up vertical line so it sits on the focus point. Possibly a slight contrast increase (with a burn brush rather than global) on the bridge and land to slightly enhance it's detail but not more than a slight touch so as not to pull focus from the boat.

Only other thing I notice is there is a lot of chroma noise. I don't mind luma noise so much as often it's not too distracting and the graininess can add to the image and complete lack of it in smooth gradient compositions like this can make it plastic looking and wrong. Chroma noise I never like though as it is more noticable.

Lastly the main thing I like (although not exclusively) is the eerie look to it. It reminds me of that trashy zombie film (I forget which now) with the boat drifting in at the beginning. There haven't been any outbreaks since you returned from work I trust?

[Donald]

I endorse what Davey has written in terms of Number 1 and the points made about it - although I'm still trying to get to grips with the different forms of noise!

I love the mood of the image.

I notice three spots, which I take to be house or street lights, on the land at 11 o'clock from the stern of the boat. These could be cloned out.

Lovely image.

[crisscross]

Yes, the bridge as a counter-weight to the boat is good in the 1st; agree on general comment by Davey, think the 3 lights help!

Removing noise without losing sharpness is difficult, but worth trying over quite large areas - you might get away with what is left between the rigging/sheets

[eNo]

I agree the 1st one is the best composition-wise, though I prefer the 2nd one for its lighting. Don't forget to take vertical compositions. Placing the boat water line on the bottom third and the shore on the top third line in a vertical would have been a very nice simplification and composition. You can even give it a try by cropping the 2nd shot to make it that way, though the IQ will not allow you a large print of it. With apologies, if you don't like it, here is a sample crop plus noise removal attempt:

[jacsul]

Nicely done, I've just downloaded GIMP and trying to get familiar with the program.
What program are you using?

[eNo]

I use Paintshop Pro X2 (PSPX2) for most of my in-depth PP work. Since I shoot with Nikons, I use ViewNX to covert the RAW to TIF, after exposure adjustment/compensation and WB correction, then take the TIF into PSPX2. I've also tried out Photoshop Elements 7 (PSE7), but I'm not too impressed. Nikon ViewNX is much better for RAW interpretation -- takes longer to convert to TIF, then go into PSPX2, but it seems to be the most flexible and powerful workflow. PSE7 just has too many limitations I don't care for, and I don't think I'll ever pay for the full-up version of Photoshop. It would be wasted on me.

[crisscross]

both of you!!

the logical progression from Nikon camera then View NX is to Nikon Capture NX2.2, admittedly more expensive than PSP and if you find View NX too slow converting, maybe your computer would struggle with it. You should be able to designate PSP and just use the File>Open with command O rather than actually convert or re-open. With NX2 you NEVER convert except to extract forum size jpg and a few exceptional cases - see my pbase explanation www.pbase.com/crisscross/nx2